It would seem that a few days away from the NHL grind did the Boston Bruins a whole world of good after limping into the NHL holiday break in the midst of a season-high four-game losing streak.
The B’s emerged from the break with a travel day to Buffalo where they flew out to New York on the same morning as game day, and then earned the customary “get right game” result against the Buffalo Sabres in a 4-1 win at KeyBank Center.
More importantly, the break and Buffalo opponent acted as a giant, honking reset for everybody including Jim Montgomery, who was ready to jump right back into the grind a couple of days after Christmas.
“I think the reset for me mentally was really refreshing,” admitted Montgomery prior to Wednesday night’s convincing victory. “I was caught, I think, in a bit of a negative mindset there by the end of our stretch. Getting home and getting some time off allows you to take a breath and realize what makes your team successful, and what makes you successful more importantly.”
Jim Montgomery on lineup changes for tonight's #NHLBruins game vs. Buffalo: "Brown is going in for Steen, Shattenkirk is going in for Mitchell, and Swayman will be in net." pic.twitter.com/G4bhI462QU
— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) December 27, 2023
Clearly it was needed for the Bruins players as well after piecing together the kind of effort that got them off to a 14-1-3 start this season.
Instead of forcing Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak to carry them offensively as had been the case for the last few weeks, the Bruins got big-time secondary scoring from Charlie Coyle with a two-goal performance, Mason Lohrei from the back end and Morgan Geekie scored his fourth goal this month as December continues to be a breakout time for him.
That was probably the biggest difference-maker for a Black and Gold group that was averaging just 2.25 goals per game during the month of December headed into Wednesday night’s return to action. Coyle finished with the two goals and has become a key secondary offense provider this season, but those were his first goals since Dec. 9 as the last few weeks hadn’t been an overly productive time for him.
“Our game wasn’t where we’ve been playing for the most part this year, so we wanted to reset, come back and start building our game up again in this second part of the season,” said Coyle, who now has 12 goals and 23 points in 33 games in what’s turning into his best offensive season at the NHL level. “That was a pretty good effort for the most part.”
Jake DeBrusk fed Coyle with a perfect pass while wheeling behind the Buffalo net on Boston’s first power play goal, and finished with two assists that matched his offensive output in the first 10 games during the month of December. Lohrei got the Bruins going in the first period while crashing the net for a rebound score in the kind of aggressive defensemen play that hasn’t been present enough lately and has two of the five goals produced by Bruins blueliners over the last 11 games.
The others have been scored by Kevin Shattenkirk (two) and Brandon Carlo (one) as it’s been an unusually quiet offensive period for both Charlie McAvoy and Hampus Lindholm.
Geekie now has four goals and eight points in 11 games during the month of December and was rewarded for his recent strong play with a prominent look at the center position in between Pavel Zacha and Pastrnak. It wasn’t a big point night for that line, in particular, but it felt like Montgomery’s changes up front gave the Bruins a little more balance where they’d been way too one-dimensional offensively in the recent past.
Of course, it doesn’t hurt when the red-hot Bruins power play kicks in goals in three of their four chances in the game as well. That’s one area where the Bruins continue to be a pretty consistent threat this season (fourth in the NHL with a 26.5 percent success rate) even as 5-on-5 scoring hasn’t come as easily.
“Any time you can win, it always helps,” said DeBrusk. “I think that means there’s lots of things that we’re doing right, and as a group, we didn’t like how we [went into] the break. Had a couple days to reset and came out with a good effort tonight, had some good goaltending and just rolled with it.”
It wasn’t all the supporting cast, though, as Marchand also responded with a pair of assists and played a strong all-around game after shaking off some early frustration at the officiating. Things actually started out shaky for the B’s as Marchand was whistled for a bogus cross-checking penalty, and then turned it into a four minute Sabres power play when he picked up an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty arguing the call with Garrett Rank.
The Bruins promptly killed off that four minutes Buffalo power play allowing just a single shot on net over that span, and then Lohrei scored on his hustle goal shortly afterward to give Boston the upper hand. From that point on there was no looking back for Boston as they built up a 4-0 lead behind strong offense, mistake-free defense and the usually elite goaltending from Jeremy Swayman (25 saves) prior to a late Erik Johnson goal beating him.
Now the trick will be sustaining an elevated level of play entering the months of January and February where the dog days of the NHL calendar settle in, with moments of fatigue like the just-concluded pre-Christmas swoon again a danger. That goes doubly so for a hockey club like the Boston Bruins at the top of the Atlantic Division where complacency can be a bit of an issue, and there won’t be many more flashing reset buttons available like there was for them naturally around the Christmas holiday this week.